Financial Accounting

Starting from September 4th through December 24th you are invited to participate in the Financial Accounting (based on international best practice) 4-month course at the Agribusiness Teaching Center (ATC) of the International Center for Agribusiness Research and Education (ICARE). The course will be taught by Marianna Amirbekyan, ACCA.

Participants are introduced to how accounting meets the information needs of various users by developing and communicating information that is useful for decision making. The course is designed to equip participants with practical skills to be able to prepare separate and simple consolidated financial statements.
Participants are expected to get fully involved in the course by attending classes, submitting complete homework assignments, and passing exams. After successfully finishing the course (i.e., getting at least 60%), participants will get Certificate of Participation.

Course description
This course is designed to provide prospective users of financial information an understanding of financial accounting fundamentals. The course focuses on developing technical skills needed to understand and record economic events in the financial statements. In addition, it focuses on interpreting financial statements. This course also emphasizes how judgment and choice among different accounting methods, as well as accounting regulation, can influence the reported numbers. While the preparers’ perspective is addressed to understand the mechanics of the accounting system, the primary focus of the course is on the users’ perspective (for more details see the main topics below). The course will be taught using lectures, lab sessions, and office hours to reinforce the materials presented in class and to help participants with homework assignments.

Learning outcomes
The objectives of the course will be achieved by requiring the following learning outcomes:
• Identify the information conveyed in each of the four basic financial statements and the way it is used by different decision makers.
• Identify what constitutes a business transaction and apply transaction analysis to record the effects of those transactions.
• Prepare financial statements based upon International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
• Describe common financial statement relationships used in financial analysis.

Audience
Participants are not expected to be intimately familiar with accounting; however, it is recommended that they have English language skills.

Teaching methods
Participants are expected to attend all lectures. The instructor will first go over the main highlights of the chapter through a power point presentation during lectures. A dynamic discussion and exchange of ideas through interactive class participation will be strongly encouraged. Throughout the course Instructor’s PowerPoint presentation slides and supplemental material will be provided.

Instructor
Ms. Marianna Amirbekyan is a chartered certified accountant, member of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) (Glasgow, UK), member of The Institute of Internal Auditors of Armenia, member of Association of Accountants and Auditors of Armenia. She currently works at the Ardshinbank as Head of Internal Audit and teaches at American University of Armenia (AUA) (Financial statement analysis) and ATC (Financial and Managerial accounting). Also, she is an ACCA and IFRS trainer in International Academy of Business (IAB) and her core expertise is in financial reporting (IFRS), external audit (ISA) and internal audit (IPPF) (for details see CV).

Course duration
The course will start on September 4th and last until December 24th.

Language of instruction
The language of instruction will be English.

Course participation fee
The course fee is AMD 100,000 which must be paid the first week of September. While similar hands-on courses are quite expensive, ICARE partly covers the associated expenses for the participants, thus staying true to its charitable, social, scientific, and educational commitments.

Registration procedure and deadline
If interested, please send your CV at melkonyanmary@gmail.com.
Registration deadline is August 30th, 19:00.Due to limited seating only shortlisted applicants will be notified for participation.

The International Center for Agribusiness Research and Education (ICARE) Foundation is a non-governmental and non-commercial organization established in Yerevan, Armenia in 2005 by Texas A&M University. ICARE is an umbrella institution for the Agribusiness Teaching Center (ATC), the Agribusiness Research Center (ARC), and the EVN Wine Academy. ICARE has produced a number of research studies for its partners: the World Bank, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and Germany’s GesellschaftfürInternationaleZusammenarbeit. These economic- and marketing-based research projects have been used to assess the region’s agribusiness climate as well as identify new opportunities for investment and development.